Takumi
Member of the Yato Club
The scorpion that had been plaguing the school finally fell under the might of Avalon's defenders. Asher let out a war cry of triumph, as did Arya in response. Little Elle followed suit, causing Ludger to laugh. Holder was stabilized for the moment and all of the enemies had been cleared away, giving everyone a sense that it was finally safe.
As Ms. Frizzle and Lalonde got the kids together to get them to a more safe location, Ludger contacted the Coalition to check on the status of the other locations.
"The hospital's clear," Jude said over the communicator. "That man in the sky, Xemnas or whatever, disappeared just now."
"I'm afraid we have another situation on our hands," Alvin's voice suddenly cut in.
***
Alvin and Rowen had traced a group of dusks to a warehouse during all the other fighting. They had been greeted with the harrowing sight of a third bomb that had been planted under everyone's noses and it was about to go off.
"Damn it!" Alvin yelled, quickly taking out the dusks with a couple of bullets and running over to the bomb. Rowen followed behind him, his look pensive. "Hell, this had to have been here for a while. It's about to go off!"
Rowen sighed. "Alvin, step back."
"What? We have to destroy it or something!"
"That will not work," Rowen replied. "When I was Mr. Curtiss' confidant, I learned about many of the weapons his group manufactured. This is one of them. Attempting to destroy it will only blow it up and it will level this section of the city."
"Then--!"
"There is no time to disarm it either. Unless..." Rowen moved quickly, pushing Alvin aside. "Excuse me." Alvin took a step back, but as he did, Rowen turned around and waved his hand in the air, causing a burst of magical energy to throw Alvin backward.
"What the hell?!" As Alvin got up, Rowen erected a magical barrier so that Alvin could not get close. "Rowen! No!"
Alvin watched as Rowen calmly put his hands out and built up magical energy.
"The blast will be powerful," he said. "The barrier holding you back will not be enough. However, if I pour my very being into it, then perhaps..."
3...
Alvin banged on the barrier, yelling for his friend to stop, but deep down he knew there was no stopping him. Rowen was the kind of man who give his life if it could save even one other.
2...
Alvin shuddered, watching as light shimmered off Rowen's body.
1...
Rowen's body went limp and he collapsed to the ground. Alvin let out one last yell before--
***
"Rowen is gone," Alvin announced, having explained the situation with the third bomb. Jude let out a strangled gasp, trying to hold back his emotions. "But the blast was contained. No one in Electric Town was hurt."
There was a long stretch of silence.
@CityofAvalon
As the dragon raged on, devouring whoever got in its way without any mercy or hesitation, it almost seemed like nothing could stop it, not even Muzét, at least by herself, despite Carol's assistance. Any trace of the gentle and valiant seraph that was once Mikleo was undoubtedly gone without a single trace. Even Edna, usually so calm and composed, could only stare helplessly, her eyes laden with shock as someone she had known for what felt like a long time was driven to the deepest depths of despair like this...
With a flap of its mighty wing, the malevolent dragon easily swiped Muzét and Carol aside as though they were little more than mere flies.
"Kyaaah!" The Great Spirit gasped in surprise and pain as her form slammed into the ground, hard enough to make a crater, stunning her for a good few moments.
Meanwhile, the barrier that Carol had put up earlier suddenly de-materialized, leaving those once affected -- Chise, Will, Kieran, Meira, and Touma -- vulnerable once again to the dragon's gaze, the beast still hungry...
"Oh, crap... Get back!!" Touma yelled, gesturing the others around to escape, for all the good it'd do for them. The boy himself, however, stood his ground, his eyes wavering between fearful and resolved, bouncing from one extreme to the next. His legs trembled, but he had faced worse before. He could do this. He could do this.
As Meira facetiously suggested to throw him at the dragon, the boy was ready to lash out comedically, before stopping himself as though a light-bulb had just appeared over his head. It was a risky plan, but it was the best thing he could do.
Making a fist in one hand, he hit it against his other open palm, turning toward the others. "That's it! Maybe if I can bait the dragon into a--aaAAAAAAAUUUGH?!" He could only say, before suddenly finding himself being flung into the air by Chise before he could even detail his plan to completion. As the dragon fixated its gaze in the group, with Touma right in the middle, it swiftly opened its mouth, as though ready to catch the boy inside, and...
CHOMP!
With a shocked gasp, Muzét could only watch as the dragon mercilessly enveloped Touma in its massive mouth, the boy disappearing from view as he was eaten up by the mighty beast, unable to intervene as she was still stunned from the dragon's earlier attack. And like he was nothing more than just another piece to bite into, the dragon began to take off again, flapping its wings again and beginning to generate powerful winds. It let out a massive exhale of blue flames that whipped through the air menacingly. The dark winds mixed with the flames, creating a powerful, destructive wave of energy that threatened to envelop the entire battlefield.
Screams and cries echoed out. Carol got to her feet and stared at the energy in awe. “I… I don’t think even I could stop that,” she said grimly. Beside her, Sorey groaned. He wiped his tears and got his feet.
“It’s over for us all,” he said. “I’m so sorry, Mikleo.”
“N-No, Sorey!” Lailah exclaimed. She squeezed her hands together and closed her eyes. “That energy, you can purify it. You can save everyone!”
Sorey shivered. “I-I don’t…”
Carol turned and placed a hand on the boy’s shoulder. “I know how hard this must be,” she said, staring into his eyes. “We’ve all lost so much. But it all… all the sacrifices have to be worth it. If it all ends here, how can that be? Everyone, even your friend, have given so much so that we can still fight. Try, kid. I will help you in any way I can.”
Sorey nodded, ceasing his shivering. The wave of energy would hit in just a couple seconds. “Lailah!” Sorey yelled, the pair becoming one. A giant sword appeared in Sorey’s hands and he swung it through the air, creating a wave of purifying fire that met the dragon’s own energy.
The two energies then collided, creating an explosion of light that hung in the air as the two energies pushed against each other.
Some soldiers stopped running and looked up in awe. Carol held on to Sorey, helping him brace himself. Julius, Rose and Dezel joined them, crowding Sorey and holding on to him.
But it was all too much strain. Sorey grunted and fell to one knee. “I think… it really is too much! I’m so sorry, everyone!” Sorey was pushed further and further down. He was losing his grip.
“I got another crazy idea,” Meira said, watching Sorey and the others. She held up her sword.
“I have the ability to draw energy into this bad boy. I’ll contain it in here--" She waved her sword in the air. "--and move it away from everyone else.”
“All of that?” Ike asked. “There is no way you could possibly--”
“Duh,” Meira said, shrugging her shoulders. “I'll probably die. Of course I know that. It doesn’t matter. I like what the hot superpowered lesbian was saying. You know, about sacrifices?”
If Carol had not been holding on to Sorey for dear life, she would have laughed darkly.
“I… think I’ve had a good run.”
“You will not face this alone!” Kieran yelled, riding up to Meira with his horse. “Climb on, you’ll get farther on horseback.” Meira nodded and jumped on to sit behind the knight. Keiran and Ike exchanged glances. “If you see the leaders of the Coalition… tell them I’m sorry, Commander Ike.”
“Are you sure about this?” Ike asked.
“No,” Kieran responded. “But there is more time to think.”
"Out of everyone, I'm glad to be doing this with you, big guy."
With that, the horse started galloping away.
“Sayonara!” Meira yelled, holding up her sword. It stabbed into the energy hovering just above the ground and began to absorb it. A few lingering shadows attempted to stop the horse, but Ike slashed the air with his sword and sent energy waves to take out the threats.
“Goodbye,” he said.
As Kieran and Meira galloped away from the fighters and into the dark fog of Ash, they took the dragon’s energy with them. It faded from the sky and all could be seen of the galloping pair was a sword, glowing on the horizon.
It then exploded, creating a giant ball of fire and energy. It shook the very ground, but was far enough away so no one was impacted. Sorey finally collapsed, separating from Lailah.
Carol looked up at the great dragon, realizing that such an attack had really been nothing for it. It could fire again and there would be no stopping the second round. The dragon flapped its wings and started to fly over the battlefield, until...
"SKREEEEEE!"
The dragon suddenly contorted in pain, shrieking loudly as though it were audibly in anguished pain as its wings suddenly stopped, unable to take off. It clumsily bumbled about, until suddenly... something disturbing happened. With a sickening SHHHLCK sound, something burst out of the dragon's body in a bloody display. Another dragon. The head of another dragon burst out from "Mikleo's" chest, like an alien, some foreign organism that was not supposed to be inside.
And then, with another SHHHLCK, a second dragon head burst out from the hole. The dragon that was once Mikleo roared in anguish, and without mercy, the two dragons inside it slithered out of the hole, bodies like ginormous snakes enveloping themselves around Mikleo's entire body, squeezing tightly, before...
SHHRK! RIIIP!
In a violent display, the other dragons began ripping apart Mikleo with its teeth, biting out chunk after chunk as the creature was helplessly unable to do anything about it. With another loud, anguished scream that rocked the battlefield, Mikleo could only fall to the ground from there, quickly snuffed out by wherever the two snake-like dragons had come from.
Perhaps one could say the sad irony was that this was the best possible fate for him. After all, there was no going back when a seraph turned into a dragon.
As Mikleo's draconic form lay on the ground, dead, the two dragon heads eventually de-materialized into thin air before long, and where the hole in Mikleo's chest was, Touma's body was suddenly present, lying on the ground right in front of him, his body miraculously no worse for wear as the spiky-haired boy struggled to get back up to his feet.
By that point, Muzét had finally managed to regain enough of her senses, braving to float over and help Touma up. "There, there... I don't know how you're still alive, but whatever happened there, it certainly worked out alright," she said somewhat morbidly, but couldn't admit some part of her was relieved that it was all over now.
"Ngh... I-It's just as well. I was just gonna run over to that dragon anyway, but I guess that worked too," the boy managed to utter out as Muzét hovered him over back to Chise and the others, his words prompting a surprised blink from the Great Spirit.
"You were going to run up to it anyway, even if that girl didn't think to throw you? You humans never cease to amaze," Muzét chuckled lightly with a fond look on her face. He reminds me a bit of you, Jude. Wherever you are... I hope you're alright.
Looking to Chise, Touma let out a worn breath. "You remembered, didn't you? When someone tries to destroy my arm, the dragons come out. Like what happened when DIO tried to kill me back then," he said, recounting the Othinus Incident with the girl.
"I don't think she did remember, dear."
...
Touma looked to Muzét for a moment, then back to Chise again, a look of disbelief on his face.
What remained of Mikleo began to fade away, becoming one with the dark skies of Ash. Sorey, half-unconscious, got on one knee and looked up to watch Mikleo’s energy dissipate. His vision blurred and he could have sworn he saw something form in front of him. It looked just like Mikleo.
“...”
The figure spoke wordlessly. Whether it was absolving Sorey of his guilt or wishing him goodbye, Sorey could not tell. Of course, whether or not the figure was real seemed suspect, as no one else saw anything.
“See you… later…” Sorey whispered, collapsing into Carol’s arms. He dreamed only of the boy who had been his soul mate.
As for the rest of the battlefield. the enemies were largely gone. Even Shan Yu had perished to Guy amidst the fighting with the dragon, leaving the Huns to scatter into the fog. It seemed the battle had been won.
“It’s too late,” Gaius said. He spoke into his communicator. “We’ve won, but Ash is too far gone. We need to start evacuating.”
“Got it,” Paladin Danse responded.
The battle-weary soldiers moved quickly, clearing out from the battlefield. Gaius, Danse, and Jon coordinated to get everyone on transporters. There was unfortunately not enough time to move the dead. They too would be lost.
Amidst the evacuation, the planet seemed to roar. The winds only got worse and electric storms were picking up on the horizon. The citizens of Charon were being evacuated as well, most temporarily to the UN for the moment. Makoto eventually came over the communicators, asking the fighters to come to Avalon for clean-up.
Ash may had been lost, but thanks to the efforts of the fighters, every citizen of Charon was saved. As the Coalition left Ash, they ceased all transportation to the planet, to make sure the lingering malevolence would not slip through any portals.
Within the hour, Ash ceased to exist.
@Outway
@Jeremi @Minerva @Yun Lee @Capri @Ver @Crow @Takumi @Crunch @Josh @Alex Azure @Donder172 @Sark @York @Gummi Bunnies @Space_Candy @Kaykay @Lucky @Ottonomous Ghost
Well that didn't go how she expected it to, but at least no one else among them died. Those that did however, she hoped their souls could move on safely after all of this.
Blinking as Touma and Muzét spoke, Chise scratched her cheek lightly.
"Ahh, so much happened I did forget about that part..." Chise murmered sheepishly.
"Sorry about throwing you so suddenly, but you're not hurt, are you?" She asked then, worry on her face as she tried to look the boy over for any injuries.
Once the group found themselves on the Enterprise, both Chise and Shigure took a moment to look around.
"I could probably make you something for your stomach later." Chise spoke up to Jude, with hope that they'd all make it out alive after this.
"This is going to be...rough, I suppose." Shigure muttered where he stood, frowning softly. Chise and Shigure both grabbed onto something as instructed, pensive and ready for a fight.
@Atomic Knight @Ver @Yun Lee @Capri @Lucky @Sark @Crunch @Everyone
